[Tyson Schmidt]

It's very common to have a bent front suspension crossmember.

This is the piece that the steering rack bolts to. It is fairly flexible fore/aft, and a good curb impact can cause it to bend, moving the steering rack forward due to the angle of the tie-rods.

If the crossmember is at all bent, it places a pre-load on the lower steering shaft bearing. This is the one wrapped in rubber and clamped to the tunnel under the smuggler's box lid.

One of the symptoms of this type of steering stiffness is that there will rather poor return-to-center effect in the steering.

Not saying this is your cause, but it's one more thing to check for.